Books

Chromolithographs on thick paper. Each sheet: 11 x 15 cm (4.3 x 5.9 inches). Slightly stained, overall in a good condition

  A complete set of the richly illustrated Ottoman War Journal, issued during WWI, focusing in the large battles, such as the Gallipoli Campaign and the battles in the Middle East   Large 4°. 27 issues bound in one volume (issues 25 and 26 published together), 432 pp., later black linen boards, brown calf spine with gilt Ottoman lettering. Issue 1…

A rare ephemeral artefact from the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I, being a mimeographed map made in the field by Ottoman soldiers, depicting the theatre of the Battles of Krithia (Alçitepe), a series of four major altercations fought between British Imperial-French forces and the Turks between April and August 1915.   Mimeograph in purple (Very Good, old vertical centrefold,…

  The first edition of the prominent Turkish poet and writer İbrahim Alaaddin Gövsa’s historically important work featuring the report of the official Ottoman artists’ delegation to the active battlefield at Gallipoli in the Summer of 1915 and containing the first printing of his complete collection of his moving poems on Gallipoli; this example featuring the spectacular illustrated cover showing…

  [Çanakkale Hakikatleri / The Truth About the Dardanelles]   8°. 73 pp., later (1970s) brown cloth binding (lightly stained, four pages with traces of text from other pages, sporadic white margins trimmed, old hand-written price on the inner side of the rear board, a tiny piece of paper mounted on the title page).  

  [Bin Bir Çiçek Mağazası / Magazine of Thousand and One Flower]   Large 8°. 80 pp., [2], later red binding with mounted original front and rear wrappers, original taxation stamp on the rear wrapper (light water-staining going throughout the book, old traces of stapled in inner white margins).  

  Tulip, Daffodil and Hyacinth Growing in Istanbul   Large 8°. 16 pp. with black and white illustrations, original wrappers with lettering, original taxation stamp (light staining, stains on two pages with partial minimal damage to the text, wrappers with tiny tears and loss of paper in one corner).  

Two original mimeographed recipes for world famous Fraises Sarah Bernhardt and Dodine de Canard de Chambertin, signed by their inventor, Auguste Escoffier, one of the most prolific chefs of the 20th century, and printed for the first international luxury gourmand evening Dîner d’Épicure on May 18, 1912, when recipes were sent to 37 international luxury hotels and restaurants, where 4000…

  [Sabāʼik al-dhahab fī maʻrifat qabāʼil al-ʻArab / The Book of Gold Bullion in the Knowledge of the Arab Tribes]   A very rare and important work of on the genealogy of the Arab tribes, as well as a sophisticated early work of lithography from the Arab World by Muhammad Amin Suwaydi’, a revised and expanded interpretation of the legendary…

Pierre Nicolas Langlet Du Fresnoy. Avignon: Chambeau 1782.   12°, viii, 116 pp., folding map of the world (old Catholic school stamp on the title page, small cracks in the hinges of endpapers, otherwise in a good condition with minor staining, binding little scuffed and rubbed).

A rare illustrated Persian book on geography, written by the leading Tehran-based astronomer and geographer Abdul Ghaffar Najm al-Mulk and published by Dar ul-Funun.   12°. 290 pp. lithographed text with illustrations and a map, folding map, contemporary half reddish-brown goat with black linen boards (binding hardly noticeable rubbed and stained, small old signature in black ink on the inner…

8°, 176 pp. with black and white maps and photographs, original illustrated wrappers (minor staining, tiny tears in margins, tine holes in the inner margins from an old binding, a small stain in the text of pp. 98-101, overall in a good condition).

  12°: 56 pp., later black cloth binding with gilt lettering (old repairs to the title page and blank margins on p. 1, minor age toning and staining, old hand-written price on the rear inner side of the rear board).  

An incredibly rare pamphlet featuring poetry specifically for boys and young men in the Georgian language, published by the Servites of the Immaculate Conception in Istanbul.   Large 8º, 59 pp., [2 pp.] list of publications, original yellow wrappers with lettering (pages and wrappers partly loose, small tears in margins, otherwise in good condition).  

A poem composed by Georg Friedrich Stauber, a theology student, and Christian Reinhard Steinheil (1708 – 1786), a court official for the occasion of the 8th birthday of Christian IV, the future Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (1722 - 1775), from a line of the Bavarian imperial family Wittelsbach, at the time still known as Christian III. As he was married morganatically…

  [al-`Urāḍa fī l-ḥikāya al-salğūqīya / The Gift from the History of the Seljuks / Das Greschenk aus der Saldschukengeschichte]   A rare first printed publication of an important 14th century historical work on the Seljuk Dynasty, written in Farsi, was a groundbreaking work of a German famous orientalist Karl Süssheim, which gained him a professorship at the University of Munich.…

  An Ottoman translation of articles on the role of Germany in the Ottoman Empire and on the Balkans by a German author Ernst Jäckh, a promotor of the Young Turks in Germany and later professor at the Columbia University, was published during WWI in Istanbul.

  A rare first and only edition of a pro-German text in Ottoman language by a Russian revolutionary, Marxist, supporter of the Young Turks and a friend of a controversial ambassador Hans von Wangenheim, Alexander Parvus was written during Parvus’s staying in Istanbul.

  An Italian illustrated magazine on the war events on the Balkans in 1897.

  Very Rare and Historically Important – a fine example of the first (and for a generation thereafter only) almanac for Goa and Portuguese India, being perhaps the greatest single published source of quantitative information on Goa during the 1830s; printed in Bombay by the Goan-operated Typographia Portugueza.

  A collection of 4 important Portuguese royal decrees announcing sweeping legal reforms in Goa, including the ‘Alvará’ that established the state’s new code for combatting piracy in the Indian Ocean; all part of the Marquis de Pombal’s radical Enlightenment agenda for the Portuguese Empire – all the pamphlets are very rare and in stellar condition.

[İncil-i Şerîf. Matta, Markus, Luka, Yuhanna / Sharif Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John]   A translation of the Gospels in Uzbek from 1913.   8°, title page, 359 pp., later green cloth binding with gilt title on the spine, embossed gilt name of the collector on the cover, original “Printed in Leipzig” rubber stamp on the title page verso (minor…

Lithograph printed on two joined sheets 58 x 69 cm (22.8 x 27.2 inches) (minor staining, tiny tears in the margins, overall in a good condition).

[Edict of Restitution of Trade. Verified by Divine Clemency the remission of the Plague [lit. Contagious Disease] which broke out in Transylvania in October 1737…]   Broadside: 44 x 32 cm (17.3 x 12.6 inches), (soft folds, tiny tears, contemporary annotations in brown ink in the lower margins, overall in a good condition).    

  A rare Greek manual on quick and precise map-making on the field with limited equipment.   8°,77 pp. with black and white illustrations, original illustrated wrappers, stapled(printed on thin paper with traces of printed text on reverse side, small tears in margins, wrappers slightly stained, with tiny loss of paper in margins, but overall in a good condition).  

  [PEOPLE AND ARMY / INSTITUTION OF THE OFFICERS AND FIGHTERS OF S3 / NO. 1. / ATHENS 10 APR. 1944]   A rare ephemeral newspaper in Greek, printed during WWII by the resistance, the so called Mountain Government, was made for the occasion of secret elections. It was the first time in the history of Greece, that women were…

An extremely rare early issue of Charles Kennedy Jardine’s directory and almanac for British Guiana, an unusually comprehensive work of its kind, featuring a vast wealth of information available nowhere else, a critical resource for the study of the colony during this critical period, compiled and published in Georgetown by the ‘Daily Chronicle’ newspaper.   8° (16.5 x 10.5 cm):…

  2 issues of an early Hebrew newspaper Habazeleh were published in Jerusalem in 1898 and 1900.

  2 Volumes, both 8°, 20th century green cloth binding with lettering on the cover and spine. Vol. 1: [2] frontispiece and title page printed in green and black, 94 pp. mimeographed text with black and white illustrations, [6] with a portrait, original illustrated wrappers. Vol 2: [2], 89 pp., mimeographed text with black and white illustrations, 6 illustrations printed…

An unusual, undated Polish edition of Hamlet, published in Lviv and Zlochiv in today’s Ukraine.   12°, 139 pp., old (publisher’s?) brown wrappers (old signature in ink on the title page, tiny folds and tears in white margins, wrappers slightly stained with small cracks around the spine, but otherwise a good condition as published with uneven margins and sporadic loose…

The first and only illustrated book on birds, published in Cuba, with originally coloured plates.   Small 4°: [4 pp.] blank, 126 pp., [4 pp.], 20 lithographed plates on thick paper (18 with original colouring, nos 13 and 19 uncoloured) and protected by guards, contemporary or slightly later binding and endpapers (minor staining, tiny chips in margins, partly repaired on…

A rare Hebrew – Ottoman Primer, printed in Izmir, Turkey, in 1913 on the eve of WWI.   8°, 32 pp., original wrappers with lettering (wrappers stained and ink-stained, wide margins with small tears and loss of white paper, slightly age-toned, sheets inside in a good clean condition).  

  A detailed guide in Turkish language to the Hajj and Hejaz Region includes maps of Mecca and Medina as well as the instructions for the routes, prayers, tariffs and other various useful tips for the pilgrims.   Large 12°. 63 pp. with black and white illustrations, original wrappers with lettering, two maps and a chart inserted in a paper…

An ephemeral broadside, printed in Damascus in Arabic and Ottoman languages, marks the stations along the Hejaz Railway between Damascus and Medina, as well as the availability of water for washing and drinking.   Broadside: 37 x 23,5 cm (14.5 x 9.28 inches), original blind stamp (little age-toned, light staining and tiny tears, but overall good).

  The very rare first edition of a fascinating and wonderfully eccentric treatise on the philosophical, scientific and political state of the world during the Napoleonic Wars, and the historical journey that led to those times, by the German military scientist Rühle von Lilienstern, illustrated by a large, unique and resplendently coloured World Map on an oblique double-elliptical projection, illustrating…

  A rare Turkish version of an award-winning text on the role of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Raja Śivaprasāda or Shivaprasad (राजा शिवप्रसाद 'सितारेहिन्द,1823 – 1895) Lucknow: Newul Kishore 1889.   8°, [4 pp.] title & index, v, 91 pp., later wrappers (uneven edges with tiny tears, little stained, otherwise in a good condition) (#70612).

  [Patmutʻiwn mardkayin patuastman / History of Human Vaccination].   An exceedingly rare, detailed book on the history and importance of vaccines written by a prominent Ottoman Armenian doctor Dikran Paşa Peştemalciyan, published on the eve of the Sublime Porte’s decree on the mandatory application of the smallpox vaccine.   4°: [2 pp.], portrait, [16pp.], 237 pp., with interleaved plates…

Hitler. Who was He? What did He Do? What Happened to Him?   A Turkish biography of Adolf Hitler, written three days after his death by a prominent writer and journalist Münir Süleyman Çapanoğlu.   8°, 110 pp., [2 pp.] blank, original illustrater front wrapper, contemporary brown patterned boards and brown cloth spine (tear in page 7-8, without loss of…

  A rare, seemingly unrecorded pamphlet gives valuable details on the 1st Swiss organised pilgrimage to the Holy Land, attended by 501 people from Switzerland and South Germany, in 1903, when travel to Ottoman Palestine was still quite dangerous and difficult to arrange.

Seemingly the only known surviving example of the first printing of the first published work by the first Western-trained Chinese medical doctor, being a report on the operations of the Kum-lee Fow Hospital, a missionary medical institution located in the western suburbs of Canton (Guangzhou) that pioneered many advanced Western treatments in China; Wong Fun, a graduate of the University…

8°. [3 pp.], 445 pp. with black and white illustrations, original illustrated cloth binding, old taxation stamp, rubber-stamp owner’s initials on the title page, original illustrated cloth binding, original pink endpapers (light staining, age-toning and foxing, sporadic small tears in margins, overall in a good condition).

Long small folio, 167 pp. with illustrations and photographs, original black cloth with debossed decoration and lettering (minor water-staining in the lower outer edge, binging lightly scuffed on the corners, otherwise in a good condition).

  Large 8°, 314 pp., boards with modern marbled paper, original calf spine with gilt decoration, original marbled paper endpapers (with light foxing and staining, p. 27-28 cracked in the upper part, a tear on p 192 repaired with old transparent paper).  

  [Binicilik Talimnâmesi. Müsvedde Halinde / Equestrian Instructions. In Sketches]   A detailed illustrated Ottoman manual on horses, dressage, military training and other equestrian sports   8°, ح, 314 pp. with black and white illustrations, [2 pp.] blank, last pages (index) printed on turquoise paper, later red cloth binding (index pages partly uncut, last two pages loose, minor staining, a…

  8°, 87 pp., 36 pp. with black and white illustrations in text, original wrapper with lettering (slightly stained, wrappers with tiny tears in margins, old Ottoman annotations on the title page, spine repaired).  

  A detailed statistical report on the first decade of the mental institution on the island San Servolo in Venice was printed by the Armenian press on San Lazzaro.

A detailed history of India, Hyderabad, and its rulers in Urdu, authored by historian Muhammad Ghulam Imam Khan, provides valuable insights into the events of the late 18th and mid-19th centuries.   Large 4º, 10 pp., 790 pp. lithographed text, contemporary goat binding with gold tooling (binding scuffed and scratched, joints broken but not detached, first two text pages loose,…

  A work by a Muslim Ottoman medical doctor on issues of hygiene and health, as seen from a religious point of view.   8°: 72 pp., original blue printed wrappers, stapled (internally in a good, seemingly unread condition, wrappers with tiny tears, spine repaired, minor foxing, staples rusty).    

An exceptionally rare book containing the Austrian national anthem, written in ten languages of the Austrian Empire and published in Lemberg, now known as Lviv in Ukraine.   16º. Mispaginated and wrongly bound, but complete: original front wrapper, [1-2] title page, [7]-8, [3]-4, [5]-6, [17]-18, [9]-10, [11]-12, [13]-14, [15]-16, but wrongly numbered as 15, [19]-20, [23]-24, portraits, original rear wrapper.…

Jasper NANTIAT (d. 1817), Cartographer; William FADEN (1749 – 1836), Publisher. London: William Faden, January 1, 1810. Copper engraving with full original hand colour, dissected and mounted on 4 parts of original linen, all housed in an exquisite custom-made full brown calf box (measuring 23 x 16.5 x 4.5 cm), dating from 1811-5, with elegant gilt tooling and a black…

  A historically important catalogue of 721 books on science, religion and other subjects, published in English and Arabic languages by the American Mission Press in Beirut.   8°, 38 pp. in English, [3 pp.] blank, 51 pp. in Arabic, with illustrations in text, original wrappers with lettering (somehow brittle, with loss of paper in the corners, but without loss…

  A rare book with a collection of songs was printed during WWII in Cleveland, Ohio, in Slovenian language by the Slovenian Women’s Union of America, as a part of the women's liberation movement.

  Au Boulet Bleu. Coueille Dégraisseur de Paris, a l’honneur de prévenir la haute Noblesse et l’estimable Public de Constantinople qu’il a ouvert un magasin a Dégraissage en face du Palais de Galata-Sérail. Il enlève toutes sortes de taches de n’importe quelle étoffe que ce soit, sans altérer les couleurs; il rêmet les effets a neuf et leur donne leur…

A rare manual for officers is the fifth and the last book, printed in the first Istanbul lithographic press, run by a Frenchmen Henri Cayol on the premises of the Ministry of War for only five years. It was written by the main patron of this new technique, the statesman and admiral Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha.   8°: [6 pp.]…

  A fine example of an early edition of a directory of the East India Company’s entire civil, military and commercial establishment, issued during the Second Anglo-Maratha War; a treasure trove of information, illustrated with a map.

  Rare - a highly engaging travel guide and overview of the Indian Subcontinent written by George Aberigh-Mackay, one of India’s most talented popular authors, illustrated with a map and a view of the Times of India publishing house, written in honor of the upcoming visit to India of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King-Emperor Edward VII), and…

      Extremely rare – no other examples traced – the authoritative city plan of Hyderabad created in the twilight days of Mir Osman Ali Khan’s transformative rule when the city was one of India’s leaders in urban planning and industrial modernization, the result of over a generation of ultra-advanced, continuously updated surveys made under the direction of the…

  A sophisticated topographical map, of charmingly crude ‘provincial’ printing style, of the strategically key district of Satara, in today’s southwestern Maharashtra, expressly made for the British colonial regime to depict the recent developments in local administration, but to also satisfy important military and infrastructure mandates; created by J.W. Windsor of the Quarter Master General’s Department (Bombay Army), and printed…

THEMATIC CARTOGRAPHY / CALCUTTA IMPRINT   Rare – the first scientific treatise on mining in the Himalayas, in this case a sophisticated analysis on how to best exploit the iron, copper and gold deposits of the Kumaon and Garhwal Districts of India (today’s Uttarakhand State) in preparation for the arrival of the Industrial Revolution and the Railway Boom on the…

  An Ottoman work on indigenous peoples of the world   8°. 408 pp. with black and white illustrations, original illustrated wrappers (wrappers with minor staining and cracks on the spine, otherwise in a clean, unbound condition).

An amazing artifact of Indonesian Independence, being an original draft of the first constitution of an independent Indonesia, as ratified at the famous ‘Round Table Conference’ (August 23 to November 2, 1949) in The Hague that set the final arrangements for the county’s sovereignty which was achieved on December 27, 1949; the present crudely-made mimeograph of a typescript is one…

  A seemingly unique engineer’s planning map of the Cirebon-Kroya Railway, a vital link that traversed the midriff of Java, connecting the north coast and south coast rail networks, likely made in 1912-3, just before construction was commenced on the project, which was completed in 1917; the map is printed by an unusual blue-tinted photolithographic technique and features the proposed…

A rare, seemingly unrecorded early illustrated pamphlet on the history of Iran in Ottoman language   8°, 79 pp. with black and white illustrations and cover printed in red, later black cloth binding with gilt lettering (tiny old repaired holes in the lower part of the cover, old hand-written price on the inner side of the rear cover, binding with…

  4 sheets, not joined, colour lithographs. Each sheet circa 95 x 111 cm (37.4 x 43.7 inches), if assembled: circa 180 x 203 cm (70.8 x 80 inches). Small tears and holes in folds and margins, tiny creases on surfaces, old repairs, partly with postal slips from 1984 in English language, and traces of tape, later annotations in the…

  8°. [2] title, 150 pp., [2] blank, original illustrated wrappers (wrappers with minor staining, minor water-staining in the margins in the first part, otherwise a seemingly unread copy).

  A pair of rare ephemeral Iranian pulp magazines with stunning design was published by Mostafa Alamouti, who would become an esteemed journalist, politician and after the Revolution a valuable source of the recent history.  

8°. [2] title page and portrait, 125 pp., original illustrated wrappers, printed in colour on the inner side of the back cover (wrappers with minor foxing, age-toning and minimal traces of use, otherwise in a good condition).

8°. [4] titles, introduction and illustration, 155 pp., [5 pp.] original illustrated wrappers (wrappers with wear mostly to the spine and minor water staining in the lower part of the back cover, rear sheets with minor water-staining in the lower part, first page with minor foxing, otherwise in a good condition).

  8°. 128 pp., later brown cloth binding with gilt lettering on the cover and spine (old hand-written price on the inner side of the rear board, binding with minor staining and scuffing on the edges, otherwise in a good condition).  

  The rare first edition of the first accurate and highly detailed topographical general map of Central and Southern Iraq, Kuwait and Khuzestan (Iran), created by the British War Office, the culmination of three generations of espionage and exploration missions, capped by late breaking discoveries; the authoritative map used by both sides during World War I’s ‘Mesopotamia Campaign’, Britain’s dramatic…

A highly important work on early petroleum history, being the official account of the first scientific geological reconnaissance of Northern Iraq, featuring 10 large, colourful maps that are the first detailed, accurate geological maps of the same region, a work that served as the blueprint for the Turkish Petroleum Company to discover the world’s largest oil field near Kirkuk in…

  [Extract of the Contract on Mineral Oil on the Segment of al-Jazeera [i. e. Upper Mesopotamia, in this case Iraq]].   8°: 23 pp., original pink wrappers with lettering, stapled (soft folds, minor staining in the upper part, but overall in a good condition).  

  [Judhūr al-fikr al-ishtirākī wa-al-taqaddumī fī al-ʻIrāq, 1920-1934 / The roots of socialist and progressive thought in Iraq between 1920 and 1934]   8°. 320 pp., [4 pp.], original wrappers with lettering (wrappers with minor folds and staining, spine with tiny repaired tears, old annotations on first title page, otherwise a good, clean, partly uncut example).    

Fahreddin Reşad Bey (Rumbeyoğlu Fahreddin Bey also Rumbeyoğlu Fahr al-Din Bey,1867–1943) - Mehmed Nâbi Bey (1868-1924). [The Problem of Irrigation and Water Supply in Mesopotamia] Istanbul: Matbaa-i Âmire 1334 [1918]. 8°, 14 pp., [2 pp.] blank, original tan wrappers with lettering on the cover (minor foxing, otherwise in a good, clean condition) (#70726). An Ottoman pamphlet on the irrigation in…

  8°, [16 pp.], partly stained with small tears, but without loss of text, sporadic small repairs with modern tape on the wrappers, small worm holes, otherwise partly uncut example)  

  8°, 16 pp., original orange wrappers with lettering (small script in black ink on one page, otherwise not filled in and in a good, clean condition).  

[The Basis for the Anatolian Turkish Antiquities and Carvings in Stone. Ankara]   An extensive illustrated work on Turkish history or art in Anatolia   2 volumes, large 4°. Vol. 1: 54 pp., blank, 41 plates printed recto in black and white and colour, original wrappers with lettering (wrappers and first pages with light foxing, later spine, last plate with…

  [The Islamic Architecture of Egypt]   A detailed, richly illustrated work on the Egyptian architecture and history or art.   8°, 169 pp., [193] pages of black and white illustrations and plans, [14 pp.] German text, original white wrappers with lettering (good used example, wrappers slightly age-toned with traces of a small label).

الازميرى Muḥammad ibn Walii Izmiri), Author of the Commentaries; ملا ( خسرو Molla Hüsrev, died 1480) Author of the Original Tex

  An usual translation of a popular book Guerrilla Warfare by a Canadian author of Jewish origins printed in Arabic language in the time of the Israeli–Lebanese conflict   8°. 171 pp. with black and white illustrations in text, original illustrated wrappers (Very Good, minor wear to the wrappers, otherwise an unread uncut example).  

  A series of one of the most influential Ottoman newspapers with elaborate colour printing.

  A scarce first post World War II population survey of the disputed territory of Istria, published in two volumes, accompanied with statistical maps, was issued in Sušak, Croatia, in 1946.

  A contemporary detailed report on the Fascist Italian invasion on Abyssinia by a prolific Turkish general, politician and author Kâzim Karabekir.   8°. 438 pp., [6 pp.], interleaved illustrations and maps, 2 folding black and white maps, 1 folding colour map, original wrappers with lettering, bound in recent red half-goat with gold decoration and lettering on the spine, grey…

  A rare Italian translation of Arthur Ransome’s pro-Soviet book was issued by the Italian socialist publishing house Avanti!, whose headquarters were burned down by the Mussolini's Blackshirts a year before. It was banned by the Fascist government in 1926.

A rare manual for practical warfare in Eritrea at the beginning of the Italian invasion in 1887 was written by an anonymous author, well acquainted with local habits, geography, and climate.

  A seemingly unpublished drafts for book covers of Ivan-Goran Kovačić’s Jama, made by a Croatian artist Predrag Purić.

  Japan. Past. Present. Future   The first Ottoman book on Japan.   8°. [2 pp.] index on pink paper, 131 pp., double-page colour map, folding map, later wrappers (folding map with partly repaired tears, otherwise in a good condition).    

A unique late 19th century binding, made of Japanese leather wallpapers   Small 4°, XXXVII, [3 pp.], 114 pp. with illustrations in text, [2 pp.], contemporary debossed gold paper boards with hand coloured details, brown calf spine with gold lettering, marbled endpapers, composed of two different patterns (paper inside with foxing, minor rubbing to the edges of the binding).  

  8°.  114 pp., later marbled paper wrappers (transcription of the title and date in Latin letters and Roman numbers in brown and black ink on the cover, tiny tears in the tile page, otherwise in a good condition).